Is melanosis coli serious?

The structure of the large intestine in the human body is very complex. When there is a problem with the large intestine, it will directly affect people's health. Melanosis coli is a common clinical disease, which is more common among the elderly. Generally, melanosis coli can be diagnosed through people's feces, so patients should also pay attention to abnormal conditions in the large intestine. So is melanosis coli serious?

1. Melanosis of the large intestine

Melanosis coli is a non-inflammatory bowel disease characterized by melanin deposition in the colon mucosa. Its essence is that the colonic lamina propria contains a large amount of lipofuscin-like substances. This disease is common in the elderly, and older men are more likely to be affected than women.

2. Multiple sites

This disease often occurs in the cecum, transverse colon, descending colon, and sigmoid colon. Feces stays in these intestinal segments for a long time, so the occurrence of melanosis of the large intestine is related to constipation. If laxatives are used after constipation occurs, the drugs will be retained in the large intestine along with the feces, leading to the formation of melanosis of the colon. Most scholars believe that the onset of this disease is also related to the long-term use of anthraquinone laxatives (such as cascara bark, senna leaves, rhubarb, etc.).

3. Clinical symptoms

This disease often has no obvious clinical symptoms and is mostly discovered by colonoscopy. Some patients may experience abdominal distension, constipation, and difficulty defecation, while a small number of patients may experience lower abdominal pain and poor appetite. Colonoscopy shows that the intestinal mucosa is black, brown or dark gray, with yellow or pink edges and early lesions, and appears tiger-skin-like or patchy. Histopathological biopsy showed a large number of large mononuclear cells containing brown pigment infiltrating the lamina propria, and other layers of the intestinal wall were normal.

Melanosis of the colon is a reversible benign lesion. Its treatment is mainly aimed at the cause, such as the treatment of chronic constipation and avoiding the long-term use of anthraquinone laxatives. There is currently no specific drug treatment for this disease, and active prevention and treatment is very important.